Parents' Night Out

The bright morning sun illuminates your marble room and beats on your eyelids. You slowly open your eyes from one of the most restful nights of sleep you've had in a long time.

You feel at ease, at peace, content with your own accomplishments. Most likely due to the source of warmth that is wrapped in your hooves.

You look down to the sleeping green form curled against you with a smug little smile. Leaning your head into his neck, you waft in his scent and feel every contour of his tiny, supple body figure. He’s not a dream, he’s real, and he’s sleeping so peacefully right now. You can feel every rise and fall of his chest, and feel his breath tickling the fur on yours.

He's all yours. He's finally yours. Nopony can interrupt you this time. You could do anything you wanted with him right now without fear. Nothing bad could happen unless...

The memory of the guard shatters your beautiful moment.

It’s true, you might have him. But now you have to keep him.

Sneaking yourself out of bed, so you don't wake the little angel, you take to the bathroom to begin your morning beautification routine. As you carefully set your hair into its usual undulating ponytail, you look into the mirror and ponder your next action carefully.

The basis of the plan is all there, but you need to find the books first. Your first stop will be the library. After getting into the restricted section, which shouldn’t be too hard, you’ll have to work fast to find all of your study materials. Then lastly, you and Anon will have to flee the castle. It’ll only be matter of time until somepony finds him here, probably Celestia or one of the guards. And you know well that the two of you can't be found until the spell is complete.

You take a deep breath.

"You can do this," you tell your mirror self.

Mirror Cadance mouths the same words, and you nod at her in agreement. You will do this for him. Then he will be yours for eternity.

Stepping into the shower, you recall the look on Anon's face as you flew him through Canterlot last night. Pure wonder. He’d forgotten all about your little mistake in hiring that horrible stallion.

Warmth fills you up as you reconstruct the mental image. The way he smiled so innocently...if you could somehow capture that innocence and contain it forever, keep it to use as you pleased, your life would be perfect. Further parts of you begin to warm at the thought, but you refocus on the task at hoof. There will be plenty of time to fantasize later.

You quickly wash your hair and clean your fur. Time is going to be of the essence if you are going to make this plan work. After drying your hooves and taking care of some unmentionables, you exit the bathroom.

The sight of the young Adonis laying in your bed makes a smile crawl onto your face once more. Once the two of you hit a rest point on the journey, you will have to reward him for being such a good boy.

You adjust your ponytail and tie a light blue ribbon around the base. Got to look pretty for your little stallion. You mentally prepare yourself for anything, but you’ll also be sure to look like the princess he expects you to be.

A moan from the bed tears your attention away from your thoughts. Anon slowly sits up, his mane an unkempt and adorable mess, and rubs his eyes. He blinks around at the room, seemingly confused, then he spots you and his grumpy little expression softens. He smiles dreamily at you. You giggle a little in spite of yourself.

"Good Morning, Nonny," you say tenderly.

"Morning," Anon says groggily.

You sit next to him on the bed and caress his face with one hoof.

"How are you feeling? I know last night was really rough for you."

"I'm... okay. I think."

Your poor sweet little Anon. He must still be so stressed and confused about everything from yesterday. You stroke down his matted mane in a soothing, comforting gesture.

"Alright then. Well don’t worry, you’re safe now. You’re with me. I just have one tiny errand I need to run and then we can try to begin to make things better with your parents."

Anon looks up at you with a face full of worry, but tinged with a little bit of hope as well.

"O-okay."

That didn't sound very sure of him.

"Is everything alright, Nonny?" you inquire.

You pull him gently to your body in a hug, continuing to pet is soft but tangled mane. His body feels tense against you, nervous. But he nestles his face in against your side.

"I... I kinda wanna go home. Maybe Mom and Dad aren't fighting anymore."

This isn't good. You’ve been trying to avoid doing this to him.

"Anon... I don't think that's a very good idea."

"Why?" he asks.

You pause. Do you really need to deliver this suckerpunch right now? As you look into his eyes, you know you do. It’s how you’ll keep him, even if it hurts him a little right now.

"Anon… your parents were fighting about you."

The color drains from Anon's face as he looks up at you. You can see that every fear and worry he’s pondered over the last few days has been confirmed. Your heart aches to see that kind of pain in his face, but you have to do this. It’s for his own good. His lip trembles, and tears form in his eyes. You rub his back with a hoof while he begins to sob into your underbelly.

"Shhhh. It's okay. It's okay my love," you whisper to him.

The tears dampen your fur and you rest your head on top of his.

"It’s not really your fault. They don’t even realize what a precious little son they have, and they’re taking you for granted. But we can make it all better. I know what we have to do, so don’t you fret. Even if they don’t treat you nice, I love you so much."

"T-thank you Cadance," he chokes out.

"How about you get some more sleep and I'll get everything ready for us to go, ok?"

"Ok."

You hold his face up to yours and tears run down from his sorrowful eyes.

"Everything is going to be okay, Nonny. Trust me."

You give him a compassionate smile as you move a few stray hairs out of his eyes. He looks up at you, and you can see the trust leaking in around the edges of his sadness. He calms down a little bit, his body losing its tension.

Yes, this is exactly what you had to do. This is how it should be. You plant a kiss on his tender lips.

"Get some more rest and don't leave this room, do you understand? I need to keep you safe from any scary or mean ponies."

He nods to you and wraps himself back up in the blankets, like a cocoon of safety. At least that terrible, disgusting stallion accomplished your main intent: he seems a little afraid of going outside now. As his eyes close, you place him under a sleeping spell. Even if he seems sincere, you can't risk him leaving the room.

After exiting the golden doors to your bedroom, you lock them from the inside with your magic. Some of the high guards around here have keys to every room, just in case, and most unicorns in the castle can probably unlock everything if they chose. But they’ll have no reason to open your tower, you remind yourself. You have to keep your cool.

Heading down the stairwell from your tower, you quietly make your way to the castle library. Even as you try to creep noiselessly, the sound of each of your hoofsteps echoes through your ears. You pass guards as they go about their normal business, and each of their respectful glances feel like daggers.

Pull it together, Cadance.

There is no way that anypony knows. They aren’t seeing through you, they can’t see what you’re hiding. They’re completely in the dark, of course. Still, it doesn't change that it feels like they know something.

Just focus on the books, you tell yourself. You know you need that mystical book on age spells. Maybe you could find a book that could list some places that could amplify the power of your magic in general. Or a book that could detail some good hiding places until you can find the spell you need to make this work. Once you find what you’re after, you’ll have to put as much distance between you and Canterlot as possible.

As you approach the entrance to the royal library, two guards step forward and open the doors for you. It’s customary, but today, it makes you jump.

"Good morning, Princess."

You nod to them curtly.

"Thank you good sirs."

Just keep calm and focus on the task at hoof. They don’t know what’s going on. Just look to your first task: heading to the restricted section.

Your hoofsteps reverberate from the high-vaulted ceilings of the room as you navigate the labyrinth of book shelves.

There are plenty of books in here that you’ve rented out to read to Twilight, Shining's sister. She’s such a smart little filly. Her reading level is right on par with yours and she always loves to read books that would make her think. You were supposed to babysit her tomorrow, but there are other things you have to do. The dent that it will make in your babysitting reputation will just have to be endured. It’s a small price to pay to keep Anon all to yourself.

As you approach the librarian's desk, which is hopelessly cluttered with books, she casts you a wide smile. The old unicorn has one of the most amazing memories for books that you have ever encountered. She never forgot a single one she’s ever read, and seems to remember many of the ones you’ve read as well.

"Good Morning Princess. Need to check something out?"

Putting on your best smile, you nod to her.

"Yes. I'm going to need to study some advanced books for my studies with Celestia."

The librarian nods back and a silver energy pulsates from her horn. A familiar large oak door slowly appears on a nearby wall. You smile in gratitude. At least something is going easily right now.

"Thank you. I won't be too long."

The librarian returns her attention to sorting books on her desk to place on shelves.

You make your way to the oak door and let yourself inside the dark room that’s hidden from the public. This room isn’t nearly as big as the library outside, but contains magic and literature that Celestia has deemed too dangerous for the public to access.

Grabbing a leather bag that you left here on your last trip, you empty out its contents of school books, hair scrunchies, and graded homework. You then pass many a cobwebbed book, and return to the shelf that you have given the majority of your attention to since you were allowed access to this section.

This section of spells and other remedies are solely for altering the emotions of other beings. You've read each of these books at least once, and at least one of them has a spell that might be helpful to you. Immediately, you take the book of expert love spells and charms.

It will have a good backup spell in case Anon won’t...

No. Don't think like that Cadance. Anon loves you. He wouldn't reconsider spending his life with you.

You stare at the book hard. Maybe you should just trust him. Maybe you should just trust your own abilities.

"I suppose... it's good to play it safe."

With a sigh, you place the book inside your bag with your magic.

You open your wings and easily fly to the top shelf. Small swirls of dust rise from the rarely-used floor. The book you’ve come here for should be one of the really old books, and those are usually way up here. If you remember correctly...

Yes, there it is!

You pull out a red book that’s caked with dust. Its spine has seen much better days. But, it’s holding together enough that you can turn the pages with ease. Slowly descending, you open the book and flip through it as you reach the ground. The pages are covered in a language that you've been learning very slowly over the past few years. Thank goodness you also have the book to translate the symbols, just in case your knowledge is lacking.

You find the page for your final spell, and read over it carefully, looking for a specific symbol. The characters on the page slowly begin to blur together as you read, until you see what you’re looking for near the center of the page.

"Irreversible. Perfect."

A light blue glow emanates from your horn as the book is placed neatly inside your bag. You follow it up with the translation book. Now, all you have to do is get out of this castle before anypony notices something is up.

You turn around hastily and run into the shelf of supernatural wonders in Equestria. A handful of books fly off the shelves and lay in the floor in a disarray with the speed of your passing. You pause to levitate the books back to their proper places, but you’re not sure you have the order just right. No time to check, hopefully nopony will notice until you’re gone.

In a quick trot, you move towards the large oak door and open it slowly. Peeking out into the library, you see the librarian busy humming a tune to herself and returning books to their proper homes. You quietly close the door behind you, and with a brief shimmer it disappears back into the wall.

No time to waste with explanations or conversation with the librarian. Your horn glows with magical energy and you teleport outside the library so you don't alert her attention.

So far, so good. You take a deep breath and make your way back to your room.

As you trot along, you go over the next steps, the details of your plan. Anon will have to ride on your back, and there won't be much other room for supplies. There shouldn't be much that you need out in the wild, of course. You can summon almost anything required in the way of supplies out of thin air.

All you really need is Anon.

"Princess Cadance."

The sound of the guard’s voice makes you just about jump out of your skin. Quickly, you do your best to recompose yourself, and turn to face him with a smile.

"Y-yes? How can I help you?"

As you turn, you see the same royal guard that disturbed you from last evening, but with dark circles under his bloodshot eyes. He rises from his respectfully kneeling position and addresses you formally.

"Princess, you wanted me to keep you informed on the search. I hope I didn't catch you at a bad time."

"No! No. Of course not. What's the status?" you reply with both real and feigned concern.

"I've had my guards out all evening searching for the colt... So far we have been unsuccessful. He may be hiding somewhere in the city, so we have expanded our search parameter. His father has also been searching. He was out all last night chasing after him, and he said he thought he saw him go towards the rough side of town. He’s very worried that Anon might have run into a some shady character over there. Even though I know you don’t frequent that side of town much, we would still like for you to stay on watch as well, since you were one of the last few that was in contact with him."

You nod to the stallion. So his father is worried, is he? Good. He deserves to hurt.

"Of course,” you say. “I will keep the guards on alert for him. What about Anon's mother? How is she and his father holding up?"

The stallion checks his reports.

"It looks like his parents are currently at their home. The mother is… pretty inconsolable. She hasn’t been much help, though by how she goes between angry and depressed, we doubt she had anything to do with the disappearance. It’s generally a parent when a foal goes missing, but we don’t think that’s the case here. His father is pretty broken up too. He’s going to help us with our search again today."

"That's good. I'm happy to hear they’re at least not involved in this."

"If we can't find him at the end of the day, we will need to consult our high wizard to perform a location spell."

"...A location spell?"

You eye the guard curiously. What kind of magic is this? You haven't heard word of that before.

"Yes,” he says. “We've only had to use it a few times because the process in casting it is so taxing. But my guard have never lost a foal before and we need to save him before there is any harm brought to him."

"Of course... I've just never heard it before. Silly me!"

You give an awkward chuckle and smile to the guard. That sounds like some powerful magic. Probably powerful enough to throw a major wrench in your plans.

"Well then. Continue the search and I'll inform any castle staff I come across to stay on watch. Good luck."

"Thank you, Princess."

The guard reverently bows once more and begins to walk off. You have a final thought, the right thing to say right now, and clear your throat.

"Oh, one more thing!"

The stallion halts and turns to you curiously.

"Yes, Princess?"

You offer him a warm and gentle smile, as motherly as you can manage it.

"Get some rest. You look exhausted."

He blinks at you, then at last smiles and nods.

"Of course, Princess."

The guard walks to the end of the hall and turns out of sight. You watch after him, the feeling of some heavy knots of doubt sitting solidly in your stomach.

That was way too close. And now you know that you don't have much time, probably far less than you thought. How could you possibly have missed something this big?! You’ve even been studying the history of the royal guard in class at school over the last few weeks! Then again, your notebooks have been filled with doodles of Anon…

Pencil sketches of him lying in his bed as you stroke his-

Cadance. You have to keep yourself together. This is what you get when you allow yourself to lose focus.

Hastily trotting back to your room, you keep your head down and your mind focused. As you move past the usual guards that line the halls, you feel how judgmental and prying their gazes seem. There is no way they’ve found him. The door is locked. You’re imagining it. But that doubt sticks in your throat and refuses to go down as you swallow.

You nearly break into a full out gallop as you get to your room. With taut muscles and heavy breaths, you pull on the door.

Locked. Still locked.

You exhale a lifetime's worth of stress.

Unlocking the door with your magic, you quietly re-enter the room and turn the latch again behind you. You’re ok for now, you repeat in your head. You still have a little time, and your prize is still nestled in dreamland. You just have to look at him once more, and you’ll know that everything is alright.

You go to your bed and draw back the rumpled mass of blankets. Still lying underneath the covers of your bed, with the sun gently grazing his beautiful face, is your Anon. You sigh down at him, but refrain from touching his beautiful little body. Not quite yet.

Instead, you move to your makeup table and slip one more book that you’ve saved for weeks inside your bag. Then, with another quick spell, you counter the sleeping spell you originally placed on the small colt.

Anon's eyes begin to flutter open and he stretches his legs out widely. After a loud yawn, he rubs his eyes with one hoof. You manage to regain your nurturing, tender smile as you move back to the bed to stroke his cheek.

"Morning, sleepyhead. Enjoy your extra sleep?"

Anon nods and smiles.

"I never get to sleep in on a Saturday!” he says dreamily. “But I’m ready to be up now, I think. So, now what do we do?"

"Now, Nonny, we get to go camping."

Anon's face lights up a little bit at the word. Good, you’d hoped that would hit him just the right way.

"That sounds fun! I've never gone camping before!"

"Well then, we are going to have a lot of fun, I promise. Let's get going."

"Can we have some breakfast?" he asks some remnants of groggy sleep still hanging in his voice.

Frankly, you could use a little food right now too, but there’s no time for that. You shake your head.

"Not right now. Maybe when we find our campsite though, I’ll make us something tasty."

Gently, you lift the foal into the air and onto your back with your magic. Your bags follow, until you have everything you feel you might need on this little voyage. Without any further explanation, you open the doors to the balcony and step out into the fresh morning air. You take just a moment to get your bearings, recalling the cryptic directions in that book of magical places. Now, according to the book... Northwest.

“Where are we going?” Anon asks from your back as he laces his front hooves around your neck.

“Someplace new,” you say. “Someplace you’ve never been before. You’ll love it though.”

Taking a few steps backward, you spread your wings and gallop. Anon squeezes you in a tighter embrace, holding his warm cheek against the back of your neck. You won’t let him fall. You won’t let him down. They’ll never find him, even if you have to fly to the ends of the earth. He is yours. No one will have him.

With a mighty flap, the two of you begin your escape from Canterlot.

The vast green landscape moves swiftly beneath you and Cadance as you cling to her for dear life. Yet, despite your fear of heights, you can't help but feel awe at the clear sunny sky and the wide open plains. You have been riding on Cadance for a few hours now and if it weren't for her warm body and fur, you would be chilled to the bone by the high winds.

You look down to your special somepony as she propels you through the bright day. Cadance's expression is ambiguous to you, as you wonder where she could possibly be taking you. She said you’d love it, and she’s always right about everything, but something feels strange to you right now. You can at least recognize that, above all, one thing is beginning to settle inside you.

You miss your Mom and Dad.

What could they be doing right now? Maybe they’re making amends with each other. Maybe they’re even missing you, but if you were the cause of their fighting, probably not. With you not there, maybe they won’t fight. Maybe they would even work things out all by themselves and wouldn't need Cadance's help at all.

You would do anything to go back to them right now and be held in your Mom's hooves. To know that they weren’t mad at you for making them fight. You secretly hope that they’re at least a little worried about you. That they still love you after what you did to them.

A feeling of guilt unsettles your stomach.

Slowly, Cadance begins her descent as the flowered plains begins to dissolve into a sea of trees. You tense as the feeling of the sharp drop rises in your stomach. You cling as tight as you can, and as if sensing your nerves, Cadance slows a little to an easy glide. You let out a breath of relief when her hooves at last touch the ground.

The warm, non-rushing air caresses your numb skin, you begin to feel the warmth of the day surrounding you. Cadance levitates you from her back and gingerly sets you down on the grass and leaves of the forest floor.

"Let's take a quick break here, Nonny,” she says, sounding a little tired from your rapid flight.

You don’t think you’ve ever seen her fly that fast before. It was cool, but a little scary sometimes. The way she flew, you’ve completely lost track of your directions, of where you came from. You look around the unfamiliar forest.

"Cadance... where are we?"

She appears to think to herself for an instant before she replies.

"Well... if I had to guess... about fifty miles from Canterlot."

Fifty miles! The realization of how far from home you are begins to wash over you and fear begins to burrow into your gut. Why so far? Does anypony know you’ve come here?

"Y-you'll take me back home sometime... R-right?"

Cadance wouldn't keep you away from everypony else, would she? Why is she taking you so far away. It’s just camping, you remind yourself. She wouldn’t keep you here or anything. This is just a nice vacation with your special somepony. She wouldn't want you to be sad or lonely. That’s not like her at all.

She turns to you with a concerned expression, as if spotting your insecurities from a mile away.

"I don't know if you can go back, Anon... at least not right now. Think about how mad your parents are. That wouldn’t be good for you or for them."

You feel some form of your own confidence drop to the pit of your stomach. The guilt from before begins to resurface. Cadance continues.

"If you went back now, they might get angry again or even hurt you... I'm trying to protect you, Nonny. They don’t deserve someone as sweet as you anyway."

Tears begin to surface, but you do your best to hold them back.

“H-how do you know that?” you ask, staring at the ground.

Cadance sighs to herself, then looks around at the forest surrounding you. She closes her eyes, then takes careful steps to stand beside you. She sits down beside you and places a hoof on your back as she looks down at you.

“My poor, poor little Nonny…” she mutters.

“What?” you ask, looking up to her. “What’s wrong?”

“I… I don’t know how to say it,” she says. “It’s terrible. Truly terrible. And, I wish I didn’t have to tell you. You’re so sweet and so wonderful.”

Your eyes look up to her. She gazes down at you, filled with pity, like she found a wounded animal and wanted to nurse it back to health, gently. It reminds you of the look your mom had when you were sick with the flu, and she would sit by your bedside as you sipped soup.

“What’s wrong? Tell me what?” you ask.

“Well, let me ask you, Nonny,” she says. “Your parents began fighting a lot recently, right?”

You nod silently, listening to her every word. There had to be some sort of explanation, but the pieces weren’t aligning in your head.

“And, I said that by running away, you would help them recover, and be happy again, right?”

You nod again, looking from her to the trees around you. Wind blows through the leaves, sending a chorus of rustles through the forest. It hums a gentle lullaby as Cadance continues.

“Why would you being away help them get back together, Anon?”

“I… I don’t know. Then they will get to talk? Then they can be happy?”

“But, why would they be happy?” she asks. “I’m… I’m sure you understand.”

Why would they be happy? That seems like an obvious question. They would finally get to talk about whatever made them so angry. And, once they get done talking about it, they’d be happy, right? Right?

“Well, if they have the chance to talk about what is bothering them, then they can fix everything. Right?”

“Except,” Cadance says. “Why can’t they talk about it when you are around? Why would that be?”

You turn your head and think to yourself again. Why couldn’t they think about it with you around? Thinking carefully, you stretch your brain, trying to think of why in Equestria your parents wouldn’t talk while you were around.

“Maybe… I don’t know. They didn’t want me to hear?” you say.

“That’s close,” she says. “You’re smart. I know you can do this. Think, what else would your parents not talk about around you?”

What else wouldn’t they talk about around you? What sort of question is that? Think, Anon.

Oh! Birthday gifts! Hearth’s Warming gifts! It’s obvious.

“They don’t talk about gifts around me. Ever,” you say.

“And why is that?” she asks.

“Because they don’t want to spoil the surprise?”

“Close. Who are the presents for?”

“Oh, uhm. Me.”

“So then. Why do you think they don’t want to hear you argue?” Cadance says.

“Because--”

Then your voice drops. You’re so stupid. How could you have not seen it before. It wasn’t just that they were just fighting over you. There was much more here than just that. They weren’t happy you were gone so they could talk…

“Because it’s about me,” you say, defeated.

“Why do you think they’re arguing, Nonny?” she asks gently, pulling you closely.

The tears can’t hold back anymore as you close your eyes and lean into her.

“B-because… B-because. They don’t want me anymore, do they? W-were they going to send me back to the orphanage?” you ask.

Cadance remains silent and pulls you in closely for a hug, wordlessly confirming your fears. For the second time in twenty-four hours, tears roll from your eyes onto the chest of your special somepony.

“Where will I go?” you ask. “What do I do?”

Cadance pulls you tightly to her and rubs her cheek against yours.

“I would never let you go, Nonny. That’s why we’re here. I can take care of you, if you let me. We can be together this way. Just like this. I’ll never stop loving you. I would never send you back to the orphanage.”

The deep seated pain of abandonment roots itself deeply in your heart, like a shovel, scooping every last ounce of trust for your family from the inside.

How could they do this to you? How could they lie and say they loved you? How long had the lie been going on?

You wrap your hooves around the Princess, your eyes running out of tears to cry. You lie limply against her grasp.

“Do you want me to keep you, Anon?” she asks you.

You nod, silently. She pulls you tighter.

“I love you, Anon. And I’ll never leave you. I promise my life on it.”

You look up into her gaze, and she stares back down at you.

“Please, don’t let me go…” you whisper.

Cadance smiles and leans in forward. She plants a gentle kiss on your lips. A warmth spreads through your body. You feel safe. You feel loved. Maybe, this is for the better. When you kiss Cadance, everything feels like it might just turn out alright. It’s way better than how you felt at home: trying to get through each day just to be miserable on the next.

Maybe this is where you really belong.

Cadance breaks the kiss, then back down at you.

“You couldn’t get rid of me if you tried,” she whispers.